This has been sitting in my
E2 Scratchpad for awhile. It was written in
2003; I was 18 years old, in my senior year of high school.
Enjoy.
Kennard is a small town in
East Texas of about
300 people. It is shaped roughly like a 'Y' turned on its side, due to State
Highway 7, which runs through it, branching off in the middle of town. Appropriately enough, this branching area is called "
The Y", and is the focal point around which
Christmas parades and
festivals gravitate. Kennard's hallmarks include a volunteer
fire department, two
restaurants, three
gas stations, the
post office, a
car wash, (which was just built within the last year and a half from this writing), and in particular
Kennard ISD, a
1A elementary/
high school.
KHS's academics are acceptable, but its main showcase would have to be its athletics,
basketball especially. Many would say that KHS is weak academically due to the strength of their basketball team, but such
naysaying is usually traced either to the unathletic or to
other schools who were handed their own posteriors during a contest. KHS's long tradition of great basketball began in the late
60's, when coach
Johnny Carter led the team to
state championships three out of four years, including an
undefeated season in
1969-
70. The older residents talk fondly of the good old days and the strength of KHS's team, so fondly in fact that one would think Kennard has been to
Austin every year since
1967. Unfortunately, this assumption would be incorrect. Although Kennard has inevitably made the
playoffs approximately 95% of all the years since
1972, they were unable to make it past the regional competition until
2001, when the girls' team won the state championship. The boys' team followed up the next year by making it to Austin, but due to injuries and other assorted reasons were unable to hold off
Brock (the year before they moved up to conference
2A...) despite a four point lead at
halftime. Regardless, the town's faith in its team never seems to waiver, and hopefully the coming
'04 season, and seasons beyond, will see many trips down
US-79 towards the state capital.
As many would expect from a town of its size,
your business is your neighbor's business, which is to say that everyone knows what's going on with everybody else. Kennard is essentially a cultural
melting-pot on a small scale; its population includes many residents of surrounding communities too small to be given a population sign, such as
Bakersprings,
Belott,
Berea,
Burrantown,
Currietown (home sweet home),
Neches Bluff,
Ratcliff,
Tadmor, and
Weches.
Despite its quirks and eccentricities, I find myself welling up with pride as I write this. I spent
the first 18 years of my life here, and am still counting. My memories of growing up here are overwhelming, and make me feel like more than just another
homo sapien producing
carbon dioxide for all these
pine trees to eat. Many have stated that they hate it here; several of my peers can't wait to graduate so they can get the hell away from all the "
small town bullshit." Others would just shrug it off as being another
small town in a big state full of others like it, none of which they've heard of or care about. But it's my town, and
I love it here.